Tag: 30 day painting

Here’s a question specifically for the wonderful artists who are currently reading this. Yeah, you. You’re wonderful. I generally don’t get along with other artists, so I’m very grateful for the fact that you’re here right now.

Have you ever had something that came up in your work a lot that you could not get right no matter how hard you tried? Worse yet, you might not have been aware that you were struggling until recently!

For me, it used to be eyes. Now, it’s lips.

Here are some of my best portrait paintings I’ve made in the last year. I guess the lips aren’t terrible, but I definitely could be doing better:

These aren’t lips. This is actually artichoke dip I made this morning. It turned out wonderful, and I just wanted an excuse to put it on the internet.

So. For the next month, I’m going to focus on improving the way I paint and draw lips. That means watching videos, looking at tutorials, and just in generally trying to improve. I’ll be posting my progress on Instagram every week or so.

Here’s some videos I’ll be studying:

In addition, I will be studying the portrait section of Vanderpoel’s book, The Human Figure.

Now. I have yet to do a 30 day art challenge successfully. As such, I’m going to aim to only do a 3 day challenge. Starting tomorrow. To see if it’s still plausible.

If you want to join me on this journey, Here’s what I’m planning to do:

*30 Day Lips Drawing/Painting Challenge!!*

***

Day 1: Paint a pair of lips

Day 2: Draw the whole portrait in terms of proportions, using a simple guide. With most detail on the lips.

Day 3: Skull Teeth

Day 4: Break Day (no drawing)

Day 5: Lips in in congruence with muscles. (Anatomy drawings would be good for this)

Day 6: Lips in Various expressions

Day 7: Study Lips from Vanderpoel book.

Day 8: Lips from Old Master Paintings

Day 9: Child’s lips

Day 10: Woman’s Lips

Day 11: Man’s Lips

Day 12: Elderly lips

Day 13: Lips in Various expressions again

Day 14: Self portrait lips

Day 15: Find a live model and draw their lips from life.

Day 16: Draw lips using colored pencils

—The second half of the challenge is dedicated entirely to oil painting

Day 17: Break Day (no drawing/painting)

Day 18: Paint lips from imagination now that you’ve spent half the month drawing them